The Sora Rail 
tainly distinguished from them by their lighter creamy or grayish white 
tone, as well as by the clearer red of their markings. 
Mr. Donald W. McLean, of Coulterville, has given us an interesting 
account 1 of a pair observed near his home. There were ten eggs in a 
“tower-like structure of flat marsh grasses,” on the 5th of June, 1916, and 
incubation had apparently begun. “On June 19th, there were six coal- 
black young in the nest. They had black-ringed pink bills, and their feet 
were very large in proportion to their bodies. Now the demeanor of the 
female changed. She forgot her shyness and walked about in the open 
within three feet of where we stood. She fluffed up her feathers after the 
manner of a sitting hen, and uttered many clucks and whistles which were 
answered by the shrill whistle of the male. He was not so brave as she and 
did not show himself except at intervals. On this same day several of the 
young clambered out of the nest into the water. We replaced them and 
quitted the vicinity so as not to disturb the family.” 
No. 306 
Sora Rail 
A. 0 . U. No. 214. Porzana Carolina (Linnaeus). 
Synonyms.^CAROLiNA Rail. Sora. Soree. 
Description. — Adult: Above olive-brown varied by black and white in spots 
and stripes on back and scapulars,—the black broad and central, the white narrow 
and marginal; region about base of bill, chin, throat, and median crown-stripe black; 
cheeks behind, sides of throat, and breast bluish ash; below olive-brown to dusky, 
sharply barred with white, whitening on middle of belly; under tail-coverts tawny or 
tawny-washed ; wing-quills fuscous; edge of wing and of first primary white. Bill yellow, 
darkening on tip of upper mandible. Immature: Without black on head and neck; 
chin whitish; throat and breast washed with light brown. Downy young: Sooty 
black, the down interspersed sparingly with longer glossy black hairs; a tuft of bright 
orange bristles on throat,—stiff and inclined forward and a bright red excrescence at 
base of upper mandible. Length 203.2-241.3 (8.00-9.50); wing 106.7 (4.20); tail 50.8 
(2.00); bill 21.1 (.83); tarsus 34.5 (1.36); middle toe and claw 47 (1.85). 
Recognition Marks. —Towhee size, but stouter in appearance; marsh-skulking 
habits; short yellowish bill. 
Nesting. — Nest: A raised platform of grasses and sedge, usually placed cen¬ 
trally in grass tussock of swamp. Eggs: 6 to 15; dull buffy or ochraceous buff (and 
so darker than eggs of Rallus Virginianus), spotted and dotted with dull chocolate and 
vinaceous gray. Av. size 31.5 x 22.9 (1.24 x .90). Season: c. May 20; one brood. 
General Range. —Breeds in temperate North America from southern California, 
Utah, Kansas, Illinois, and New Jersey, north to central British Columbia, southern 
1 The Condor, Nov., 1916, p. 229. 
1540 
